Interview with Dr. Sonya Jones, Community and Public Health RIS Chair

Interview with Dr. Sonya Jones, Community and Public Health RIS Chair

A Conversation With Community and
Public Health RIS Chair Dr. Sonya Jones

No one knows the importance of public policy to clinical nutrition
better than Sonya Jones, Chair of ASN's Community and Public Health
Research Interest Section. In addition to her work with ASN, Dr.
Jones serves as Deputy Director of the Center for Research in
Nutrition and Health Disparities at the University of South
Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health. In both roles, Dr. Jones
has worked as a tireless supporter of nutrition research and
education initiatives. She recently talked to us about her
experience with ASN, the importance of the organization's community
and policy work, and the personal story that led her to become the
public health advocate that she is today.

Interviewer: What first drew
you to the field of nutrition?

Dr. Jones: Interestingly
enough, it was for entirely personal reasons. When I
first met my husband, he was trying alternative therapies for
cancer: taking nutritional supplements and practicing a vegan
diet. I read voraciously on every new therapy he adopted to
determine if evidence indicated it would be beneficial or if it
could be potentially harmful. Then my daughter was
born, and I had a number of challenges trying to breastfeed
her. We had already adopted a vegan diet, but I started
reading the literature regarding breastfeeding promotion and other
nutrition literature. I decided to go back to graduate
school, originally, to do breastfeeding promotion, which is how I
ended up at the school of public health and in the nutrition
department.

Interviewer: When and why
did you decide to join ASN?

Dr. Jones: I started
graduate school in 1998, and I had a graduate assistantship with
Linda Adair, who was a member. She encouraged me to
submit a poster abstract for Experimental Biology, which I attended
for the first time in 1999. I have gone almost every year
since. I decided to maintain my ASN membership after graduate
school, because I realized the important role the organization
plays in representing nutrition researchers as well as an
opportunity for us to network.

Interviewer: What did you
find most exciting about your trip to Experimental Biology this
year?

Dr. Jones: The
Community and Public Health RIS sponsored a late-breaking symposium
that discussed health and sustainability guidelines for vending and
concessions. We were excited to sponsor that session because
it is a novel approach to reshaping the food system and working in
partnership with industry to create demand for healthier and more
sustainably produced food. That symposium stimulated
conversations within our RIS about how we can get more involved in
public health policy, so that was one of the real highlights for
me. We also had a well-attended session on food access that
summarized the literature on who has access to different food
choices and whether such choices are associated with
diet.

Interviewer: What other
aspects of your membership do you find most useful?

Dr. Jones: Beyond attending
ASN's Scientific Sessions and Annual Meeting at Experimental
Biology, what I really value about ASN is the important role it
plays in public policy and advocacy. ASN's staff is very
attuned to the policy concerns related to nutrition research.
For example, they pay close attention to NIH budget decisions and
recently wrote a letter endorsing CDC's Health and Sustainability
Guidelines for Federal Concessions and Vending
Operations.

Interviewer: Can you tell us
a bit about your experience as the Chair of the Community and
Public Health RIS? Why would you recommend a chair position to
other members?

Dr. Jones: Being an RIS
Chair has been a very positive experience for me for several
reasons. I've had a great advisory committee of past chairs,
which has provided me with an incredible opportunity to engage with
leaders in my particular subfield of nutrition. Another
positive aspect is the program planning. As RIS chair, there
is the opportunity to organize each program and to determine what
kinds of research conversations will be most productive for
members. There have also been some benefits that I did not
anticipate. Because ASN is working to increase its
international footprint, the RIS chairmanship offers some great
opportunities to interact with nutrition policymakers from around
the world. For example, they asked us if we could organize a
presentation for the World Public Health Nutrition Congress in
Portugal, which we were happy to do. A group of us were also
able to attend the Congress.

Interviewer: What current
initiatives is the Community and Public Health RIS working on that
you think members would be most interested in?

Dr. Jones: For the past
couple of years, we've been working to come to agreement about the
food industry's role in public health nutrition research: trying to
understand potential conflicts of interest and what they mean for
the research we present. We've recently considered developing
a symposium proposal to discuss these issues from our perspective
as well as potential solutions for professional organizations like
ASN.

Interviewer: Is there
anything we haven't covered that you'd like members to know?

Dr. Jones: We have two major
symposia under review as well as eight mini-symposia slots for
Experimental Biology next year. The role of public policy is
really growing in the society right now, and I think we have a lot
to learn from our nutrition science colleagues. I'm already
very excited for next year's meeting!